HBG Big News This Week: April 29-May 3, 2019

Following is a recap of major news at Hachette Book Group for the week of April 29-May 3, 2019:

Bestseller news: David Baldacci’s Redemption (GCP) debuts this week at #2 on the Audio Monthly Bestsellers (Fiction) list. Overall, HBG has 14 titles on the list. HBG’s distribution clients have five books on the New York Times list this week.

James Beard Awards: Two James Beard awards for HBG authors! Christopher Kimball, author of Milk Street: Tuesday Nights (LB) won the James Beard Book Award in the General Books category, and Geraldine de Ruiter, author of All Over the Place (PublicAffairs) won the James Beard Award for Personal Essay, Long Form, for “I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls from Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter” (read it here). More about the awards at jamesbeard.org.

Indies Choice Award: booksellers at American Booksellers Association member stores across the country have awarded Madeline Miller’sCirce(LB) both the 2019 Indies Choice Book Awards for Adult Fiction and Audio Book. Also announced by the ABA were the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards, and Jewell Parker Rhodes won an E.B. White Award for Ghost Boys (LBYR) in the middle reader category.

Major release: Jared Diamond’s Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (LB) goes on sale next week, with a major media lineup, including interviews on PBS/Newshour, CNNI & PBS/Amanpour, NPR, GoodReads Books of Your Lifepodcast,Scientific American podcast, New York Magazine, Salon, Dallas Morning News, Big Think, Slate The Gist, Skeptic podcast, and reviews in USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Globe, NYT Book Review,Economist, New Republic, Bloomberg Businessweek, and American Conservative. Diamond will also hit the road to do events in major venues with sold out crowds.

Worth reading: in October GCP will publish Imaginary Friend, the highly anticipated novel by Stephen Chbosky, his first novel since The Perks of Being a Wallflower, published 20 years ago. Check out this Publishers Weekly story, “Has Stephen Chbosky Written Another Generation-Defining Novel?” and find out how Senior Editor Wes Miller won the auction for the book – it’s an interesting look at the work of the editor, and the author/editor relationship.